Chronicles of the Secret Service (6 page)

‘This is swell,’ he remarked. ‘It’s real nice of you, Joy, to have me in here. Say,’ he asked, ‘what caused you to change your mind about my coming to this saloon?’

‘After the information you gave me,’ she explained, ‘I thought it best you should meet my fiancé. In a moment, he will be here. I have told him what the policeman said to you.’

Carter contrived to look embarrassed.

‘But I thought you said he was jealous and would not understand.’

She shrugged her shoulders, and smiled. The fear she had shown at the Pearl, when he had confided to her the supposititious remarks of an imaginary police officer, had apparently left her entirely. She seemed now quite at ease and unconcerned.

‘Personal matters that appear important,’ she remarked, ‘become trifles before events of general urgency. My friend, I think, was a little displeased, but any foolish jealousy he may have felt faded at the importance of my tidings.’

‘That is so,’ observed a quiet voice, which pronounced the sibilant sounds as though hissing them. ‘One cannot allow one’s own feelings to take precedence of bad news affecting one’s national activities.’

The stilted and precise English told Carter who the newcomer was, even before he turned to survey the man who had opened the door and entered the room so quietly. He had heard it before with its distinct hissing inflection. A short, stoutish man, wearing the costume and felt-soled shoes of a Chinese gentleman, stood eyeing the two through a pair of large, tinted spectacles. Carter recognised Yumasaki at once, despite this attire, a recently grown moustache, and the glasses which normally would have constituted quite an effective disguise. The Englishman had, on several occasions, had official dealings with the Japanese, when the latter had been consul in Hong Kong; had met him at social gatherings; had been present during Sir Leonard Wallace’s severe cross-examination of him regarding Japanese espionage in Hong Kong. Carter had no fears that his own disguise would be penetrated, but he knew he would have to retain all his wits about him, if he were to prevent any suspicion arising in the mind of the spy.

Yumasaki closed the door softly behind him, advanced towards the pseudo-American, and bowed low. Carter rose from his chair; held out his hand in friendly manner.

‘Glad to meet you, Mr – er—’ he began.

‘Shall we dispense with my name?’ came from the other, as he barely touched the hand extended to him. ‘It really does not matter.’

Carter shrugged his shoulders.

‘As you like,’ he returned. ‘I guess you mean me to take the name for granted anyhow; otherwise I don’t see that there’d be any point in you wanting to know what that police guy said to me.’

‘Let us be seated,’ suggested Yumasaki.

He waited until Carter had once again sunk into the comfortable depths of his chair; then followed suit in another directly opposite. The China Doll had not uttered a word since the appearance of the Japanese, but her soft eyes were watching him a trifle anxiously, Carter thought as he glanced at her, as though she sensed antagonism in the air. The Englishman himself felt this. Yumasaki’s manner was suave, and contained all the excessive politeness of his race but, behind it, there seemed to be a suggestion of something that was certainly not friendliness. Possibly jealousy lurked there, despite his words. The British Secret Service man resolved to put an end to any feeling of that kind at once.

‘Say,’ he remarked, ‘I want to tell you right now you’ve got no call to be jealous of me. I guess I fell for this lady all right, but I didn’t know she was engaged to you, and I’m not the sorta guy to butt in where I’m not wanted. I’d sure like to be friends with Miss China Doll, though, if she’s willing. You can’t object to that?’

‘My dear sir, I object to nothing,’ came the reply. ‘Shall we proceed to matters of greater moment? I understand a police officer interviewed you outside the dancing hall called the
China Doll. Will you kindly repeat to me exactly the statements he made to you?’

‘I don’t rightly know why I should,’ demurred Carter. ‘I guess I’m a bit muddled. The lady told me she was engaged to you – at least, I reckon it’s you she meant. Is that so, sister?’ he asked, turning to the girl. She nodded. ‘Well, you look to me to be a Chinaman, while I kinda expected a Japanese, you see.’

‘Since you appear in such difficulties, shall I admit that I am a Japanese wearing Chinese clothes?’

‘I get you. All right, I’ll spill the beans. First of all, though, you’ve got to know that I don’t want to get mixed up in any Secret Service racket.’ He thereupon repeated that which he had told the girl in the Pearl Dancing Hall, adding a few details to colour the recital. ‘That’s about all, I guess,’ he concluded.

Yumasaki had listened attentively without interruption. He now began to question Carter cleverly in an effort apparently to discover if the police had any suspicions of his whereabouts. The young man answered with obliging frankness, declaring that they certainly seemed to know something judging from the manner of the man who spoke to him. The Japanese then turned to the girl and spoke rapidly in Chinese. Unfortunately Carter was not well acquainted with that language, and was able to understand only a phrase or a word here and there. He gathered, however, from the little he was able mentally to translate that among other matters, Yumasaki was referring to the affair of the letter found on the sailor who had committed suicide. Possibly he was blaming it for his present dangerous situation. Presently he turned to Carter.

‘I am much obliged to you, sir,’ he acknowledged, ‘for the
information you have imparted. I regret that your interest in the China Doll has involved you in a matter that is, doubtless, distasteful to you. At the same time you have been of service to us and that I regard as fortunate. You are, I believe, an officer from the American liner,
Seattle
. Is that so?’

Carter nodded.

‘Yes; I am second mate.’

‘May I ask you to say nothing about meeting me here?’

‘Sure. I guess that’s easy.’

‘Excuse me if you please. I will see if you can leave without any more police officers wishing to talk to you.’

He rose, and left the room in the same silent manner as he had entered it. Carter turned to the girl, who was looking distinctly perturbed again.

‘So that’s the man you’re going to marry, Joy,’ he commented. ‘Can’t say I’m impressed, but I guess I’m prejudiced. Say, what are you looking worried about?’

‘The situation to us is rather worrying,’ she replied. ‘You would not understand. But let us forget it, please. It’s not pleasant. This morning you will go back to your ship, and you and I will never meet again. I shall be sad.’

‘Why shouldn’t we meet sometimes? The
Seattle
won’t be sailing for several days, and I guess you’ll find me around.’

‘You must not, please. I really mean it when I say we shall not meet any more. Promise me you will not come here again to the saloons.’

He spent some minutes protesting, but she remained firm in her determination. At length, with an appearance of intense disappointment, which was not very much alien to
his actual feelings, he acquiesced, giving the required promise. Womanlike, she then began to express her regret, which he believed to be entirely sincere. Yumasaki made his appearance in the same unheralded, quiet fashion, shut the door behind him and, crossing the room, stood before Carter, his hands hidden, in typically Chinese fashion, in the voluminous sleeves of his garments.

‘It is evident,’ he announced, ‘that there is much police activity tonight. Always these halls are kept under strict surveillance, but there are certainly more officers about than is usual. I think it will be wise if you remain here.’

Carter gave the appearance of considering the situation.

‘Well, that suits me,’ he declared presently, ‘so long as I can get back to my ship by six.’

Yumasaki shook his head slowly. The Englishman could see his eyes narrow behind the tinted lenses of his spectacles and, at once, prepared for trouble. The Japanese agent began to assume a sinister aspect, as he stood there facing the man who had made no secret of his interest in the China Doll.

‘I do not think you will reach your ship by six o’clock,’ came in the sibilant tones. ‘I do not think you will ever again see her.’

Carter clutched the arms of his chair; the China Doll slid from the couch with a little cry.

‘What the heck do you mean?’ demanded Carter.

Yumasaki shrugged his shoulders.

‘It is a matter of the greatest regret to me,’ he remarked politely, and as though he were discussing the weather, ‘but I have reached the conclusion that you know too much. Consequently, it would be the height of unwisdom to allow you to live.’

‘Don’t be a sap!’ growled Carter. ‘Your ideas of a joke don’t appeal to me.’

‘I am not joking, my dear friend. There are great issues at stake and, under such circumstances, one life more or less makes little difference. You forced yourself upon the China Doll who, I should like to remind you, is my property. Incidentally, you have become mixed up with affairs of which you most certainly should know nothing. You will, doubtless, agree that you have only yourself to blame, and be prepared, I hope, to meet your death with the fortitude of a gentleman who recognises the necessity of it.’

The girl’s face had turned white beneath her make-up, with the result that she looked rather ghastly. She grasped Yumasaki’s arm, and spoke to him pleadingly in rapid Chinese. Carter realised he was in a desperate position. However, he had been in others even more dangerous, and his cheerful spirits were in no way dampened. On the contrary, he rather gloried in the situation, and laughed quite naturally. The China Doll stopped talking; turned to regard him with wonder. Yumasaki’s cold, threatening assurance received something of a setback. He had not anticipated this extraordinary young man receiving sentence of death in such a manner.

‘You are amused,’ he commented frigidly. ‘I am glad. Such disregard of dying will enable you to face the transition to another existence with equanimity.’

‘I have not the slightest intention of dying, Mr Yumasaki,’ replied Carter coolly. ‘I guess I enjoy living a whole heap too much to feel any hankering after that other existence you speak of.’

At the use of his name, the Japanese scowled ominously, but made no comment on it.

‘I very much regret your attitude,’ he remarked smoothly, as though reproaching a child for being unreasonable. ‘I am sorry to say I entirely disagree with you concerning your expressed intention of not dying. As I have said, it is a necessity.’

‘Look here,’ remonstrated Carter, ‘you asked me to say nothing about meeting you here and, I guess, I said I wouldn’t. Isn’t that enough for you?’

Yumasaki shook his head.

‘There is too much at stake,’ he pronounced. ‘You have also forfeited your life,’ he added, his tone becoming harsh for the first time, ‘because you have dared to cast eyes of desire on this lady who belongs to me. That, in itself, deserves execution.’ At that, the China Doll once again broke into vehement protests. He silenced her with a gesture. ‘Your pleading for him,’ he declared, still speaking in English, ‘but proves that he has roused your interest, which I will not tolerate. You will go. I cannot escort you to your abode this morning, for reasons you will appreciate. T’so Lin Tao will afford you the protection necessary. Go!’

The China Doll turned her eyes, full of misery and compassion, on Carter, who grinned cheerfully at her and rose from his chair.

‘So long, Joy,’ he cried. ‘Say, there’s nothing to look down in the mouth about. I’ll be seeing you.’

‘You are a brave man, Mr – er—’

‘Call me Tommy,’ he invited. ‘I guess it’ll sound kinda cute coming from you.’

His good spirits actually brought a smile to her lips.

‘Goodbye Tommy,’ she murmured softly. ‘Forgive me, please, for bringing you to – this.’

‘Oh, shucks! You’ve brought me to nothing. Yumasaki here
will
have his little joke.’

The Japanese turned savagely on the girl.

‘Go!’ he thundered. Without another word she went, closing the door gently behind her. Yumasaki swung back to Carter. ‘You persist in regarding this affair as a joke?’ he asked, resuming his suave manner.

‘Sure,’ was the reply. ‘And nothing you can say will make me alter my opinion. So I suggest we stop playing games; shall we? I kinda feel it’s time I hit the hay.’

Yumasaki ignored his remarks.

‘You will observe,’ he stated, ‘that this room possesses no windows, the door is very powerful. I am now going to leave you to spend a few minutes in reflection. You will be locked in and, therefore, cannot escape. Presently some men will come to speed your soul on its last journey. There will be a little discomfort, but I can promise you no pain. I will not see you again alive, so I will bid you farewell – Tommy.’

He pronounced the name with mocking intonation, and turned to leave the room.

‘Just a minute, Mr Wise Guy,’ called Carter. ‘Guess I have a word or two to say myself about this little party you’re arranging. Do you think that, if I’d reckoned I was in any real danger, I’d let you leave this room? Why, you poor Japanese mutt, I could break you in two with my hands.’

Yumasaki stepped softly back to him, a sneering smile curving his thick lips. His hands were still tucked in his sleeves.

‘I am quite well aware,’ he conceded, ‘that, as far as brute strength is concerned, you have much the advantage of me.
I am, however, an exponent of the art of ju-jutsu, and could render you helpless in a few seconds. I possess another big argument in my favour.’ He drew his right hand from the sleeve in which it had been concealed and Carter saw he was grasping a long Japanese dagger. ‘I am also,’ proclaimed Yumasaki, ‘very expert in the use of this weapon. Before you could grasp me, you would be impaled. Have I convinced you I am not a fool?’

‘On the contrary, you have convinced me you are. I’ve been wondering all the time what kind of weapon you were holding inside that sleeve. That’s why I spoke of breaking you in two. I wanted you to supply me with the information. You see, I figured it out you might be holding a gun pointed at me, which would go off, if I made any aggressive movement.’